A Discovery of Witches - Netflix

Editor

A Discovery of Witches is a TV adaptation of the All Souls Trilogy
by Deborah Harkness.

Type: Scripted

Languages: English

Status: In Development

Runtime: None minutes

Premier: None

A Discovery of Witches - Pyewacket (familiar spirit) - Netflix

Pyewacket was one of the familiar spirits of a witch detected by the
“witchfinder general” Matthew Hopkins in March 1644 in the town of
Manningtree, Essex, England. Hopkins claimed he spied on the witches as
they held their meeting close by his house, and heard them mention the
name of a local woman. She was arrested and deprived of sleep for four
nights, at the end of which she confessed and called out the names of
her familiars, describing the forms in which they should appear. They
were: Holt, “who came in like a white kittling” Jarmara, “who came in
like a fat Spaniel without any legs at all” Vinegar Tom, “who was like a
long-legg'd greyhound, with a head like an Oxe” Sacke and Sugar, “like a
black Rabbet” Newes, “like a Polecat” Elemanzer, Pyewacket, Peck in the
Crown, Grizzel, Greedigut, described as imps Hopkins claims he and nine
other witnesses saw the first five of these, which appeared in the forms
described by the witch. Only the first of these was in the form of a
cat; the next two were dogs, and the others were a black rabbit and a
polecat – so Pyewacket was, presumably, not a cat's name. As for the
other familiars, Hopkins says only that they were such that “no mortall
could invent.” The incident is described in Hopkins's pamphlet “The
Discovery of Witches” (1647).

A Discovery of Witches - In film and fiction - Netflix

In the Hollywood film Bell, Book and Candle (1958) Pyewacket is the name
of the brown sealpoint Siamese cat/familiar of a witch, Gillian Holroyd,
played by Kim Novak. The film was adapted from a 1958 Broadway play that
continues to be produced in community theatres, with Pyewacket played by
a live cat. In the 1967 children's novel Pyewacket the title character
and protagonist is an alley cat. In the 2008 computer game A Vampyre
Story, Pyewacket is the name of the familiar of the (missing, presumed
dead) sorceress who used to own the castle where the game begins. She is
also a Siamese cat. Pyewacket is a 2017 horror film.